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The Comparative Value Added Rankings
Each year there is a hue and cry among many when the Gleaner publishes its CSEC English and Math
"Quality Score" rankings. The argument in effect is that certain schools are at the top of the list because they tend
to attract the students with the highest GSAT scores and therefore, it's only to be expected that these students
would score the highest on the CSEC exams five years later.
Many have suggested that there should be a method of measuring the "value added" that each school
imparts to its students, a measure that would somehow control for the incoming GSAT averages for each school.
The Gleaner and Johnson Survey Research have made an initial attempt to do this.
The Ministry of Education has provided the average GSAT scores for the students placed at each of the
high schools in 2008. From these, we developed rankings from the highest to the lowest for English (Language
Arts) and Mathematics.
As an example, the following Table lists (in order) the ten schools with the highest GSAT scores in English
for incoming classes in 2008. All other things being equal, you would expect these ten schools would be in the
same order for the CSEC Quality Score Ranking for English five years later. However, this is not the case.
2008
2008 2013
2013
Incoming GSAT
Incoming GSAT CSEC Quality CSEC Comparative
Ranking
Average Score Ranking Quality Score Value Added
001 Campion College
95
001
3694
0
002 Immaculate Conception
92
002
3463
0
002 Montego Bay High (Girls)
92
008
3026 - 6
004 Ardenne High
91
005
3111
- 1
005
Wolmer's Boys'
90
011
2763
- 6
005
Wolmer's Girls'
90
004
3347
+ 1
007 Hampton High
89
033
1533
- 26
007 St. Andrew High (Girls)
89
003
3350
+ 4
009 Glenmuir High
88
010
1920
- 1
009
Westwood High
88
007
3076
+ 2
1